Tagged: Twin Rocks

Jun 28

Exciting announcement… the Twin Rocks painting is finished!

It feels good to have it done.  This one is going to a friend of mine to hang in her vacation house at Rockaway Beach, OR where those striking rocks are located.  I hope she likes it.

I started thinking about this painting last August, when my husband, Eric, and I were staying at Rockaway in the vacation house.  Jane, who owns the house, was letting us stay there as a gift for our 22nd wedding anniversary.  She’s been working on fixing, painting and decorating the house for a long time (the master bath is done in all-out Betty Boop style!) and I thought it would be nice to paint something for her dining room.  There is a large very dark wall opposite the sliding glass door that would be the perfect spot.  Eric measured the wall for me and I decided I’d get the biggest canvas I could fit right there.

Then I went out and tried to find a pre-made canvas 20×60″.  That turned out to be harder than I realized it was going to be.  I had to go somewhat smaller, 12×36″.  I tell ya, someday when I have some space, I’m going to start stretching my own canvases!  You can see the stages this painting went through on my Works-in-Progress page.

So anyway, Janie, this one’s for you!

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Jun 07

Change of direction

I had a wonderful week!  Family visiting from Hawaii, some sunshine, a trip to the coast – it was great!  While we were at the coast visiting the Tillamook Cheese Factory, we slid up north a little way and dibbled our toes in the water at Rockaway Beach, which just happens to be the site of the painting I’m currently working on.

Oh, my. I almost cried when I realized how far off I was on the scale in my painting. Those rocks are HUGE! I knew I had to do something. So, with a little fear and trembling, I started slapping paint over what had been some of my favorite areas of the canvas. Away went the sand, the foam at the edge of the surf and the pretty reflections of the rocks. The tide was coming in!

After a moment of adjustment, I took a long look at what I had done and began to see some potential for improvement. It was quite a surprise! The kind of surprise that you want to see after taking a leap of faith. There was what could be made into a higher point of ground in the right corner with some beach grass waving in the ocean breeze. That turned out to be just what I needed to add another layer of distance to the painting, effectively pulling the rocks back farther and simultaneously increasing their height.

I still need to fine-tune the waves, but here is what I have so far:

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Jun 01

It feels good to get back to work

I just posted some photos of my current project on my WIP page.  This one has been a long time in coming and, shame on me, I chickened out and didn’t work on it at all last week.

I started painting it May 3rd, although I’ve been thinking about this one since last August.  It took a while to decide I needed to just pick up the brush and DO IT!  It’s just paint, for goodness sake!

I did finish two ACEO paintings that I’m quite happy with, though.  ”Spring Chives” and “Ocean Breeze”  These are both listed for sale in my Etsy shop www.etsy.com/shop/wendelika

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May 29

Little projects

I’m working on a big project again.  I’ve avoided getting started on it for a long time.  I finally just decided to get the canvas set up and DO IT!

I worked on it a few times making great progress, really happy with what I was beginning to see in it, trying not to lose ground.  I was going along fairly well with it, until I laid in the foreground.  Now I’m really unhappy with the color I put in there.  I should have fixed it last week but I really didn’t want to think about it, so in true Wende fashion, I avoided the problem and worked on a couple little ACEO paintings, instead.

I’m really happy with the little sailboat.  It’s called “Ocean Breeze.”  I just listed it on Etsy yesterday and by this morning, it was included in a treasury! http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4de11671b5ab8eefb845eb5a/summer-breeze-makes-me-feel-fine

The other one I did, I had started the week before, so it just needed a little finishing and a light coat of varnish.  It is an oil pastel painting called “Spring Chives”  I’m not really happy with the photo I got of it.  It’s much cleaner in real life.

Sometimes it’s really nice to get something done quickly.  Now I can go back to the big project feeling like I have accomplished something and, yes, I really do know how to paint something worth looking at.

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